Compared to dogs, cats have a larger area of the brain dedicated to receiving signals from the muzzle area. Whiskers have receptors that communicate with the somatosensory cortex of their brain, giving them information about the ambient temperature, their balance, and the size of a space they are trying to move through. Whiskers can also detect movement and airflow, and send messages to the brain about how strong, what direction, and how quickly the air around them is moving, which could foretell potential movements of their kill.
